Product Description

This set of three double moulds which cast the six pieces required to make a complete chess set side: King, Queen, Bishop, knight, Rook, Pawn. You will require about 18 bars of metal to complete a full chess set.

The complete Spanish Armada 1588 chess set has two sides, the English and the Spanish.

The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from La Coruña in August 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting the army from Flanders to invade England. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and her establishment of Protestantism in England, with the expectation that this would put a stop to English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering. In July 1588, as the Spanish Armada came nearer, the Earl of Leicester was appointed "Lieutenant and Captain-General of the Queen's Armies and Companies".The King of Spain's (Philip II) plans failed and it eventually resulted in the loss of about one third of their armada, thanks to a variety of factors including opportunistic tactics by the English and Dutch as well as storms that resulted in many ship wreaks off the shores of Scotland and Ireland.

In addition to filing off any flash from the figure, the bottom should be flattened where the ingate was removed.

Wash the figure in warm soapy water in preparation for painting.

Prime the pieces with a white undercoat as many of the colours are light. Allow 24 hours to dry.

Paint as supplied is usually too thick. Thin with the appropriate thinners until it covers the areas touched by the brush but does not spread to other areas.

Dry brushing is used to give large areas a subtle blended effects blending the black undercoat with a colour on raised areas. This is also used to add highlights to raised areas giving the look of more depth and animation. Washing is used to add a colour mainly to the foulds.

We recommend that you give the figures a coat of either matt or gloss varnish.

Product Videos

Casting a Spanish Armada 1588 Chess Set with 5 Star Pewter using a Solder Pot (05:23)

Prince August released in November 2017 a new Spanish Armada 1588 chess set as moulds to allow you to cast at home. We also introduced a new Solder Melting Pot and this video combines them and uses our 5 Star Pewter metal (instead of our normal Model Metal) to cast the pieces. The Solder Pot allows for far better casting results than a normal cooker or hotplate would as it reaches higher temperatures.
Please take care when handling liquid metal. This is not for children. Never cool moulds or metal with water.
The links below are for the chess moulds, solder pot and metal respectively.
http://shop.princeaugust.ie/spanish-armada-1588-chess-moulds/
http://shop.princeaugust.ie/solder-melting-pot-1/
http://shop.princeaugust.ie/casting-metals/
Websites:
http://www.toysoldierfactory.ie (Visitor centre)
http://www.princeaugust.ie (Toy Soldier Moulds)
http://www.mithril.ie (Lord of the Rings miniatures)
http://www.facebook.com/toysoldierfactory
http://www.twitter.com/princeaugust